There are a lot of things not to like about Rick Nash escaping a suspension for his hit on Tomas Kopecky on Thursday night. These things include Nash leaving his feet, Nash leading with his elbow, Nash approaching Kopecky from the blind side, and Nash hitting Kopecky in the head.

Not on that list: the fact that Nash plays for the New York Rangers. Well, for most people, anyway.

Before the non-suspension decision:

Shanahan, an ex-Ranger, would be exposing himself to serious conflict of interest allegations if there is no Nash hearing/suspension.

Shanahan played 140 of his 1,524 career NHL games for the Rangers, the second-to-last stop in his career before 34 games with the Devils, his original team, in 2008-09. In total, Shanahan played 315 games with New Jersey, as well as 716 for the Detroit Red Wings, 277 for the St. Louis Blues, and 76 for the Hartford Whalers.

Now, never mind that Shanahan does not act alone in issuing suspensions and that there is an entire Department of Player Safety that discusses every infraction before Shanahan puts a face on disciplinary rulings with videos on NHL.com. He must have a bias in favor of his old teams.

In addition to the Devils, no members of the Los Angeles Kings, Tampa Bay Lightning, or Winnipeg Jets have been suspended under Shanahan’s reign — although all four suspension-free teams have had players fined. The real question, though, is why Shanahan has failed to take any disciplinary action whatsoever against the Hartford Whalers, the only team for which he had a shorter tenure than the Rangers. Serious conflict of interest allegations, indeed.